Concept 5 - Chess Tactical RPG

A two-layer strategy game where you lead a team of chess-themed characters through a deadly war - maneuver them around a chessboard "overworld" made up of mini-tactical RPG map "tiles" that overlapping characters must fight on, where anybody can die and the ending is up to how well you play.

Core game loop: Interact with your team members/pieces in a slice-of-life scenario, move them around a chessboard-shaped "overworld map", if a character moves onto a space occupied by an enemy character then play through a Fire Emblem-style tactical RPG skirmish on that tile (which turns into a roughly 8x8 map of its own to move around) in which players take turns moving their characters and attacking until one side is defeated, repeat until the game is won or lost

Similar games:

- Chess: Inspiration, overworld/"grand strategy" movement, character concepts, but the actual engagements are more involved - somewhat like FPS Chess, where two pieces overlapping starts a minigame of sorts, but in this case it's a tactical RPG fight on a map corresponding to the tile the pieces are on, rather than a quick 1v1 FPS match

- Fire Emblem Three Houses:  Similar"engagement" gameplay mechanics, and similar ability to interact with (and lose) characters, but shorter, with a larger grand strategy element, and with more flexible potential endings and outcomes based on who lives and who dies

- Undertale: Similar structure of a game with a fairly linear plot but a world and ending that shifts wildly depending on which characters are alive or dead, with characters who get along/interact and react to the fates of others - but the gameplay is completely different, and the game's structure means that characters are going to die (as pacifism isn't an option), so the shifting atmosphere and ending are going to be encountered one way or another.

Prototype Plans: This is kind of a large concept, so I'd probably just want to test the whole "chess + Fire Emblem" core gameplay mechanic. I'd probably make the game local hot-seat multiplayer, implement basic chess mechanics, and then create a single map (rather than one map per tile) that the pieces move to when one overlaps the other, taking the form of a tactical RPG fight. Even that is already quite a lot, so I'd probably only implement basic chess mechanics (skipping things like castling and en passant) and keep the tactical RPG stuff limited, though if I had the time I'd want to at least give each chess piece their own abilities in the tactical RPG section. 

Challenges:

- This concept is decidedly narrative-focused as much as it is gameplay-focused (without the fear of losing characters and other characters reacting to their deaths, the gameplay concept is perhaps a bit shallow), so something might be missing without dialogue.

- If I DO want to inject some character into things, that's 32 characters I need to draw.

- 1v1 tactical RPG fights sound... kind of boring - perhaps characters on adjacent tiles also get to fight when two pieces enter a battle?

- I have to program chess and tactical RPG-style movement... it's obviously doable and quite easy, but it is a bit intimidating.